All seats in a passenger car are occupied in less than one percent of all trips. In particular, the middle seat in passenger cars with a row of seats having three seats is occupied only on very rare occasions. This means that a portion of the vehicle seats has no utility in most trips, which applies in particular to the middle seat of the rear row of seats. The space taken up by the unneeded vehicle seats leads to lost comfort relative to the used vehicle seats. For example, this configuration of the three-seat rear row of seats results in a greater loss in comfort on the outer vehicle seats than would be incurred in a row of seats configured with two vehicle seats designed as individual seats.
DE 31 02 881 A1 discloses an emergency seat arrangement for a motor vehicle, in which an emergency seat essentially has a tear-resistant, flexible and collapsible length of fabric can be designed in such a way as to deploy an emergency seat using the length of fabric by means of a hook anchored in a vehicle floor to create the seat surface and a hook that engages a rope transversely tensioned in the motor vehicle to create the backrest. When not in use, the length of fabric is rolled or folded up, and stowed in a location provided for this purpose in the motor vehicle. The emergency seat is arranged and configured in the motor vehicle independently of vehicle seat rows. Special anchoring points must be provided in the vehicle floor for attachment.
DE 1 685 303 U further describes an intermediate seat for buses, which can be arranged on two vehicle seats of a row of seats, bridging two spaced apart seats. It is provided in the form of a length of fabric that can be rolled up like a blind, and is furnished on one side with a tube having two forks. The forks can be used to hook the intermediate seats on receiving elements of the vehicle seats that form gripping rods, so that the length of fabric can then be rolled out, bridging the gap between the two spaced apart vehicle seats to creates a seat surface with backrest. The edge areas of the length of fabric are here placed loosely on the spaced apart vehicle seats, and the seat surface is created solely by the steel bands incorporated into the fabric. However, this is associated with a loss in comfort to the extent that the seat surface can move relative to the adjacent vehicle seats, for example while driving through curves.
In order to be able to design utility seats to reflect contemporary comfort requirements, it is preferable that such a seat only be present when actually required.
In view of the foregoing, it is at least one object to provide a utility seat of the kind mentioned at the outset that is easy to use, and can be reliably stowed away when not in use. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.